WWUTT 2254 It is Time to Seek the Lord (Hosea 10:1-15)

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Israel will once again have all their sins laid out before them and the promise of judgment, but there is an appeal that they would repent and turn back to the

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Lord. And that same appeal is said to us when we understand the text. Many of the

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Bible stories and verses we think we know, we don't. When we understand the text is an online ministry dedicated to teaching the

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Word of God in context, promoting sound doctrine while exposing the faulty. Here's your teacher,

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Pastor Gabe. Thank you, Becky. In our study of the book of Hosea, we've been reading about a prophet whom

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God told to marry a wife of whoredom. And this was supposed to be a picture of God's relationship with Israel, who was not faithful to God and whored themselves out with false gods.

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And so God will bring judgment out on Israel, but he will be faithful to fulfill his promises through Judah.

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Now, what we're going to read about here in chapter 10 today, more about Israel's sin, but there will be an appeal for Israel to turn from their sin and seek the righteousness of God.

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So let's come again to Hosea. I'm in chapter 10 today. We'll start by reading verses 1 through 10.

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Hear the word of the Lord. Israel is a luxuriant vine. He produces fruit for himself.

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The more abundant his fruit, the more altars he abounded. The better his land, the better he made the sacred pillars.

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Their heart is faithless. Now they must bear their guilt. Yahweh will break down their pillars and destroy their sacred altars.

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Surely now they will say, we have no king for we do not fear Yahweh. As for the king, what can he do for us?

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They speak mere words. With worthless oaths, they cut covenants. And judgment flourishes like gall in the furrows of the field.

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The dweller of Samaria will fear for the calf of Beth -Avon. Indeed, its people will mourn for it.

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And its idolatrous priests will cry out over it, over its glory, since it has gone into exile from them.

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The thing itself will be carried away to Assyria as tribute to King Jerob. Ephraim will receive shame and Israel will be ashamed of its own counsel.

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Samaria will be ruined with her king like a stick on the surface of the water. Also, the high places of Avon, the sin of Israel, will be eradicated.

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Thorn and thistle will grow on their altars. Then they will say to the mountains, cover us, and to the hills, fall on us.

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From the days of Gibeah you have sinned, O Israel. There they stand. Will not the battle against the sons of injustice overtake them in Gibeah?

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When it is my desire, I will chastise them, and the peoples will be gathered against them when they are bound for their double guilt.

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So this is once again more of God laying out before Israel the sins that they are guilty of, that their sins are even greater than what had happened at Gibeah.

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We talked about that before. Gibeah was the place where the Benjamites did evil every bit as wicked as what

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Sodom and Gomorrah did. It was kind of a demonstration of how the people of God had already become like Sodom and Gomorrah in the span of about a generation.

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And so now Israel is just as wicked as they are, and the battle against the sons of injustice will overtake them in Gibeah.

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So there will be a hand that God will cause to come against Israel and punish them.

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But what we're going to have at the end of this particular chapter in Hosea 10 is there will be an appeal for Israel to repent and to seek the righteousness of God.

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So that'll be the second part. Really, this is broken up into two parts. The mentioning of Israel's sins here in 1 through 10, and then a call for them to repent of their sin in 11 to 15.

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So let's come back up to verse 1, where it says, Israel is a luxuriant vine.

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We've seen this many times from the prophets and elsewhere in the Old Testament, referring to Israel as a vine.

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There's a lot of agricultural metaphors that are made.

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God talks about Israel as being like a vine that he has cared for, that he had nurtured. And yet Israel did not celebrate its creator.

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They went off and gave all the tribute and the glory to false gods. So it is said of Israel in the next line, he produces fruit for himself.

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So the fruit that is produced by Israel, that God had cared for and tended to this vine to produce, instead of the vine producing the fruit back to the vine dresser, they are producing fruit for themselves.

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They are taking that which God had blessed them with to give unto

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God's glory, and instead they glorify themselves. And this is something that I've said of sin many times, that when it comes to our sin and all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God, Romans 3, 23, we take that which

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God has given to us, the breath that we breathe, the bodies that we have, the mind that we are given to think with, and we take those things and instead of glorifying

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God with them, we glorify ourselves instead. A person who speaks words of boastfulness and words of blasphemy, they will boast in themselves, they will blaspheme

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God. People who take their eyes and instead of looking upon things that would cause them to give glory to God, looking upon the beauty of all that he has given to us, and that which shows and gives testament to his wonderful majesty.

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Instead, we set our eyes on things that please us. We go after the things that are in the world.

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We set our eyes on things that we lust over or covet, and instead of turning to God, we turn to things that would satisfy us.

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Ears, we listen to things that we like. You know, as it's said of false teachers in 2

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Timothy, they heap up for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, who scratch itching ears, and that's what we want.

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By our nature, by our sinfulness, we want those things that are going to tell us what pleases us.

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So people go after false teachers because they want the teacher to tell them the thing that their flesh desires.

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It's why there are so many false teachers in the church. They are a judgment upon those who are not really looking for God, but instead are looking for those things, those teachers that will tell them, yeah, you can have all the appetites of your flesh.

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That's okay. And God will still accept you. He will still bring you into heaven. He's a loving God. He would never do anything bad to you.

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We're all his children. Every single person is his children. And what father would smite his children or send them to an eternal place of fiery torment?

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No father would do that. No loving father. And so we know that God loves us, and therefore he would never do such a thing to us.

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And those people who don't like the idea of hell, don't see God for all of his wonderful glory, whether it's his glory displayed in destroying his enemies or his glory displayed in those whom he will save by his mercy.

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Instead of beholding God in that way, I don't really like the hell doctrine. So I'm going to look for teachers that won't teach it.

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But without an understanding of our sin that leads to wrath and judgment, then there's no understanding of a need for a savior who will rescue us from that judgment.

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And that savior, of course, is Christ. When he dies on the cross for our sin, he takes upon himself the wrath of God so that all who believe in him, that has been paid for, paid in full, which is what tetelestai means, the

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Greek word that is translated, it is finished in John. Or when you consider

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Colossians chapter one, where it says, he nailed our record of debt to the cross. It was paid for by Christ and his blood who gave his life in our place.

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So then all the things that we have done to deserve the wrath of God, taking those wonderful things that God has given to us, and we sought our own glory instead of giving

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God glory. God sent his son to pay our debt so that whoever believes in him will not perish under the wrath and judgment of God, but we will have everlasting life.

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And that's what we read about here in Hosea 10 .1. Israel is a luxuriant vine. He produces fruit for himself.

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And then continue on. The more abundant his fruit, the more altars he abounded. So the more prosperous

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Israel was, the more he built altars to false gods.

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The more altars he abounded, the better his land, the better he made the sacred pillars.

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Consider what is said in Deuteronomy chapter eight. This is the very thing that God had warned

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Israel that they would potentially do. Deuteronomy 8 .17,

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beware lest you say in your heart, my power and the might of my hand have gotten me this wealth.

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You shall remember the Lord your God, for it is he who gives you power to get wealth, that he may confirm his covenant that he swore to your fathers as it is this day.

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And if you forget the Lord your God and go after other gods and serve them and worship them, I solemnly warn you today that you shall surely perish.

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Like the nations that the Lord makes to perish before you, so shall you perish because you would not obey the voice of the

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Lord your God. So as Israel prospered, instead of giving the glory to God, they said my hand, my power and my might has done this.

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And the more they prospered, the more they gave what they received to false gods, whoring themselves out with false gods.

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And so God's judgment will be upon them. Verse two, their heart is faithless and now they must bear their guilt.

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Yahweh will break down their altars and destroy their sacred pillars. They wouldn't do it themselves.

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They wouldn't repent and tear down their altars and turn back to God. So God is going to do it. And in the process of bringing down the wickedness that they do, he is also gonna judge

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Israel. Verse three, surely now they will say, we have no king for we do not fear

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Yahweh. As for the king, what can he do for us? Now, this is not an expression of repentance.

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This is an expression of despair. What can the king do for us? We've had everything taken from us because we did not fear

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Yahweh. So it's like they acknowledge there's punishment and judgment coming upon us because we did not worship

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God as we were supposed to do. But instead of causing them to repent, they think to themselves, we need a king that can help deliver us from the judgment that has come upon us.

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Now that's kind of interesting, right? That would be the question that they would ask as for the king, what can he do for us?

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But who they're seeking is not King Jesus. They're looking for an earthly king. What king can come along and restore to us the wealth that we need to go on pursuing the passions of our flesh and worshiping our false gods?

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That's essentially the question that they're asking. Whereas when God does punish us, when he chastises us, when he brings to his correction because of our sin, what a great time to ask, where is the king who will deliver us?

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Not an earthly king, but the heavenly king who has been given, Jesus Christ and turning to him and being delivered of our sin and given an inheritance much better than anything that we could prosper with in this world.

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The heavenly kingdom that has been promised to us. So we have no king, we do not fear Yahweh.

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As for the king, what can he do for us? Verse four, they speak mere words. With worthless oaths, they cut covenants and judgment flourishes like gall in the furrows of the field.

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That's a reference to a poisonous plant. So the judgments that they will receive won't be a blessing, it will be a curse.

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The judgments that they get will be a curse. It won't be judgment on their enemies, it will be judgment that will come upon them.

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It will not be a precious harvest, but it will be plants that would kill them if they were to eat them.

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So they speak mere words. With worthless oaths, they cut covenants and judgment flourishes like gall in the furrows of the field.

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So we've seen before in Hosea how the people would say something about turning back to God, but they never really meant it.

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Or they would say something about worshiping God and it wasn't genuine worship. So they speak mere words and they cut worthless oaths.

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Verse five, the dweller of Samaria will fear for the calf of Beth -Avon. Indeed, its people will mourn for it and its idolatrous priests will cry over it, over its glory since it is gone into exile from them.

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So this was the golden calf that they worship that was at Beth -Avon in the northern kingdom, the area known as Samaria.

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And so because the God will strike down the altars, as said earlier, they'll mourn over the loss of their false

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God. They won't mourn over their sin. It's the same sort of picture that we have in the book of Revelation of those who mourn over the destruction of Babylon.

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Fallen, fallen is Babylon the great. Same sort of thing. We're going to see like an eschatological fulfillment of this later on when

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God will strike down the cities that worldly people depended upon for their prosperity and all their pleasures.

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And when those cities are destroyed, they will mourn over the destruction of those cities, not their sin, but that the source of the fulfillment of all their pleasures is no more.

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Same thing is happening with Israel here with the destruction of the calf at Beth -Avon. Verse six, the thing itself will be carried to Assyria as tribute to King Jerob.

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Ephraim will receive shame and Israel will be ashamed of its own counsel. They'll take away their false gods.

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They'll take away their gold and everything else and carry them off into another kingdom and the king will glorify himself in it.

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What will Ephraim get out of it? Shame. Israel will be ashamed of its own counsel.

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Verse seven, Samaria will be ruined with her king like a stick on the surface of the water.

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Now, it could be asked here which king of Israel we're talking about and really the answer is all of them because every king of Israel was wicked and Israel has already seen a succession of one king after the next falling, failing, worshiping false gods, not worshiping the true

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God, judgment coming upon them. But even with the destruction of each king, it doesn't cause

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Israel to turn from their sin. They just continue looking for the next one. As for the king, what can he do for us is said in verse three.

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So verse eight, also the high places of Avon, the sin of Israel will be eradicated.

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Thorn and thistle will grow on the altars. Then they will say to the mountains, cover us and the hills fall on us.

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Same thing we see in Revelation. Revelation chapter six, verse 12. He opened the sixth seal.

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I looked and behold, there was a great earthquake and the sun became black as sackcloth.

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The moon became like blood and the stars of the sky fell to the earth as the fig tree sheds its winter fruit when shaken by a gale.

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The sky vanished like a scroll that is being rolled up and every mountain and island was removed from its place.

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Then the kings of the earth and the great ones and the generals and the rich and the powerful and everyone slave and free hid themselves in the caves and among the rocks of the mountains, calling to the mountains and rocks, fall on us, hide us from the face of him who is seated on the throne and from the wrath of the lamb for the great day of their wrath has come and who can stand.

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So same thing being said here by the children of Israel, knowing that God's judgment is coming, fall on us, they say to the hills.

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From the days of Gibeah, you have sinned, O Israel, and they stand. Mentioned Gibeah last time, that place where the

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Benjaminites became as Sodom and Gomorrah. Will not the battle against the sons of injustice overtake them in Gibeah?

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Verse 10, when it is my desire, I will chastise them and the peoples will be gathered against them when they are bound for their double guilt.

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And so that's the statement of God saying, I will judge them, I will punish them.

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And so here, what we have next in verses 11 to 15 is an appeal to repent. So here, from the word of the

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Lord, verse 11, and Ephraim is a trained heifer that loves to thresh.

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So it's interesting that they worshiped a golden calf and throughout the Old Testament, there is a reference to Israel as being like a calf.

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So instead of understanding who they were, a young animal that had been raised and tended to by God, instead they worshiped the thing that God had compared them to, like a real calf.

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They went and worshiped a false calf and believed it to be their God. So Ephraim is a trained heifer that loves to thresh, but I will come over her fair neck with a yoke.

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I will harness Ephraim, Judah will plow, Jacob will harrow for himself.

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So Judah is going to produce something. There is still going to be a judgment that will come upon Judah as well after it comes upon Israel.

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But Judah is the tribe that God is going to use to fulfill all the promises that he said would be fulfilled in the line of Abraham.

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So verse 12, so with a view to righteousness, he says, reap in accordance with loving kindness, break up your fallow ground.

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Indeed, it is time to seek Yahweh until he comes and rains righteousness on you.

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So this is that appeal to repent. A yoke has been placed upon you.

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It is burdensome. It is heavy. It is God chastising his child, his calf, which he has raised and cared for.

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So what are you going to do with this yoke upon your neck? Are you going to groan? Are you going to lay down on the ground?

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Are you not going to do anything until you're slaughtered like a worthless animal because you won't work, because you won't serve the

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Lord your God? So instead, the statement is made to them, so with a view to righteousness.

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It's like what we read in Matthew 6 .33. Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness and all the things that you need will be added to you as well.

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Same thing is being said here. So in view to righteousness. Verse 13, you have plowed wickedness.

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You have reaped injustice. You have eaten the fruit of deception because you have trusted in your way, in your abundant warriors.

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Remember what is said in Proverbs 3 .5. Trust the Lord with all your heart and do not lean on your own understanding.

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In all your ways, acknowledge him and he will make straight your paths.

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Verse 14, therefore a rumbling will arise among your people and all your fortifications will be destroyed.

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A shaman destroyed Beth Arbel on the day of battle when mothers were dashed in pieces with their children.

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Thus, it will be done to you at Bethel because of your evil of evils.

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It is said here in verse 15. At dawn, the King of Israel will be completely ruined.

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The promise of God's judgment will be fulfilled, but those who will be delivered from that judgment will be those who turn to the

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Lord. It is time to seek Yahweh until he comes and reigns righteousness upon you.

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So with a view to righteousness, reap in accordance with loving kindness.

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And that needs to be the pursuit of us all. We desire the righteousness of Christ and he will give it to us.

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The thing that God demands, righteousness is the thing that he gives. Righteousness.

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The righteousness of Jesus Christ. So turn from your sin to the

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Lord Christ. Now next week, when we come back to this and we come to Hosea chapter 11, here's a very, very popular verse in Hosea 11 .1,

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something that you might recall being referenced in Matthew. When Israel was a youth,

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I loved him and out of Egypt, I called my son. And yet we know that verse is not specific to Israel, but is in reference to Christ.

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Because as Mary and Joseph and Jesus came out of Egypt and back into the land of Judah, thus it was fulfilled what was said in Hosea 11 .1,

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out of Egypt, I called my son. So how could that be when it's clear that that verse is talking about Israel?

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When Israel was a youth, I loved him. We'll consider that when we come to Hosea 11 next time.

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Heavenly Father, we thank you for what we've read today and I pray that it would be convicting. It would be a reminder to us that God is faithful to fulfill what he has said that he is going to do.

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He will bring judgment against the wicked, but he also has mercy for those to whom he will show mercy that we might turn from our sin to the

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Lord Jesus Christ and live. So convict our hearts and continue to draw us to you.

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We ask in Jesus name, amen. If you'd like to submit a question to this broadcast, or just send us a comment, email whenweunderstandthetext at gmail .com

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and let your friends know about our ministry. Join us again tomorrow as we grow together in the study of God's word when we understand the text.